A Birthday Surprise
by Dustmeister1999
Summary: Dusty's birthday is coming and his friends want him to have a fantastic party. But things go terribly wrong when Dusty disappears from his hangar. Rated T for language, torture, and character death.
1. Chapter 1

It was April 23, 2015. It was just an ordinary day in Propwash Junction, and a few months after Dusty Crophopper had won the Wings Around the Globe Rally for the second time. Ripslinger didn't even come close.

While Dusty was practicing with Skipper for his next race, Dottie and Chug were planning a surprise party for Dusty, as he was turning nineteen on the 30th, just one week away.

"This year, we're going to make sure that he has the best birthday ever!" said Chug. "We need more people to participate!"

"We've invited the entire town! I'm sure that's good enough!" said Dottie.

"What about his racing buddies? Ishani? El Chu? Bulldog?"

"Don't you think that would be difficult to arrange? They're in different countries!"

"Come on! They've raced around the world! I'm sure they can handle it!" Then out of the corner of his vision he saw something orange and white coming towards them.

"Aw shoot," he said quietly, "Dusty's coming."

They were in the Fill N' Fly, and the place was cluttered with party plans and preparations. If Dusty came in, the surprise would be ruined.

They both quickly drove up in front of Dusty to block his way.

"Hey Duster," Chug said, "What are you doing?"

"Uh, well I'm just taking a break from practice, and I was going to the Fill N' Fly—" Dusty started.

"You've been practicing all day!" Dottie interrupted, "You should go back to your hangar and get some sleep!"

"Um…," Dusty said, giving them a weird look, "right now?"

"Yes!" Dottie said. "Right now!"

"Okay then…" Dusty was clearly weirded out with how they were acting, but he did what Dottie said.

"Wow, that was close!" said Chug as they drove back into the Fill N' Fly.

"Yes it was." Dottie replied. "We need to clean this place up; we can't keep him away all week!"

After they tidied up the place, they went to sleep themselves. It was a perfectly quiet, ordinary night. But that quickly changed when the scream of five gunshots rang through the air. It woke up quite a few people, including Skipper. He left his hangar to search for where the gunshots had come from.

_Violence never happens in Propwash, _he thought to himself, _it was probably just someone going hunting in the middle of the night. _

Then he saw Dusty's hangar and gasped.

"Oh no…" he said. The door to the hangar was pretty much destroyed and there was shattered glass everywhere. He was too nervous to look inside.

"D-Dusty?" he called. No answer. "Dusty!" Then he made himself look inside.

Dusty was gone.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys! Thank you so much for the reviews! :D I'm flattered that you're all screaming at me for more lol ;) Short chapter here. They won't always be this short hehe.**

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Six days had passed since the disappearance of Dusty Crophopper. Agents Holley Shiftwell and Finn McMissile examined the scene. They found a piece of Dusty's side window, showing that one of the bullets had hit him right in the side window. It was a bad shot indeed, but still most likely did not kill him because why would his attackers take the trouble to take him away if they had already killed him? Hopefully the other four bullets hit the door and not him, but no one could be absolutely sure. They also found his antenna lying just outside of the destroyed hangar. Clearly the attackers did not want anyone to be able to track him. His friends, of course, were getting very anxious.

"So much for the best birthday ever," Chug said sadly. "God knows what's happening to him. And his birthday is tomorrow!"

"I know…" said Dottie, tears leaking from her eyes. "I absolutely hate not knowing what happened! We don't even know if he's alive or dead! And we may never find out!" She broke down and cried. Chug wrapped his pump around her in a hug, tears escaping from him as well.

"Hey, don't talk like that!" said Skipper. "They'll find him, don't worry! I know they will!" Even he didn't believe what he was saying. Even if they did find him, he would probably be dead by that time. In fact, he was probably already dead. As Skipper dwelt on this horrible reality, he himself started to cry with them.

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**So there's chapter two. Next chapter we find out what happened to Dusty... it's not going to be pretty guys, just warning you...**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 is finally here! 8) Took me forever because I spent like 20 minutes on each sentence. XD I refused to upload it until I was completely happy with every single word.  
Anyway, I just have to say that I would never kill my favorite character in the first chapter of my first story. So yeah, Dusty is okay. (B  
**

* * *

Dusty groaned. He was aching all over, particularly on the right side of his head.

_Probably worked too hard yesterday, _he thought to himself.

Then he opened his eyes.

"W—what the…?!" He was no longer in his hangar. Rather, he was in a dark, dank room. There was a table with weapons on it, and dried oil everywhere. It was a mess. Then he noticed that his wings and landing gear were strapped to the floor with metal.

"What the… WHAT THE HELL?! HELP! HELP! SOMEONE, PLEASE!" he yelled. He kept yelling like that until a rusty orange car with green eyes drove in.

"Will you please shut up?" he said. Then a gun popped out of his side. Dusty gulped.

"No one can hear you anyway," said the car, driving closer to Dusty until he was at his nose," and no one will hear me shoot." He loaded his gun. Frantically, Dusty turned on his propeller in defense, striking the car in the hood. The car yelped and recoiled in shock. Dusty looked at the damage he had done. He had given the car a nasty dent. Suddenly a sharp pain rippled through Dusty's body and he let out a yell as his propeller stopped spinning just as quickly as it had begun.

Then a door opened and two more cars drove in. One was light green and roundish with brown eyes, and the other was tiny and light blue, with pale blue eyes and a monocle. Both of them were rusty as well.

"What is going on?" said the smaller car. He had a German accent. He looked at the orange car's hood. "How did you get that dent?"

"The plane did it," said the orange car.

"Oh, Grem, you idiot!" said the green car, "How did you manage to get hurt by the defenseless plane who's strapped down?"

"Well uh…" said Grem, "he's not entirely defenseless! He has a prop!"

"Then why did you go near his prop, doofus?"

"Because…well…shut up, Acer!"

"Enough!" shouted the tiny car. They immediately stopped arguing. "Anyway, I know how to keep that from happening again." He had this smile that made Dusty shudder. He drove up to a lever on the wall next to Dusty's right wing. Dusty hadn't noticed it earlier. With a grunt, the car pulled the lever down.

"AAAAAAAUUGH!" Dusty's pain had subsided while the cars were talking, but now intense electricity coming from the metal bands that held him in place set it ablaze again, even worse than before. It got increasingly worse by the second until his engine was fried and the car turned it off after what felt like hours. As Dusty caught his breath, he saw Grem and Acer cracking up.

"Dude, that is awesome!" said Acer.

"Yeah," said Grem, "we should have gotten that ages ago! I would have loved to use that on many of the others!"

The others? What did he mean by that? Was this something they did often? Were they… serial killers? Dusty shivered at the thought.

Just then three planes and two forklifts drove in. Dusty recognized all but one of them: Ripslinger, his pitty Luke, Ned, and Zed. The one that he did not recognize was a black forklift with brown eyes that was about twice the size of Luke.

"Well," said Ripslinger, "look who finally woke up!"

"Yeah, seriously," said Ned, "You were asleep for a week!"

"I—I was?"

"Yep," said Zed, "but you woke up just in time! Do you know what day it is?"

"Uh…" Dusty honestly couldn't even remember what month it was.

"It's your birthday! We're all going to have so much fun!" Ripslinger said. "Oh, except you." They all broke into laughter. Dusty was about ready to cry. He had never been so terrified in his life.

"P—please…" he whimpered. "Please don't hurt me." Then they just started laughing like they had just heard the funniest joke ever.

"I'm afraid that's too much to ask, farm boy."

* * *

**Poor Dusty... Dx  
Btw I know that Ripslinger's pitty is not given a name in the film; that is the name my brothers gave him so I used it in this story.  
**


	4. Chapter 4

**Okay, to be honest I didn't expect to have this uploaded so fast. I have never actually written anything like this before.  
This was partly inspired by my brothers; stuff like this happens all the time when they're playing with die-casts. My family is weird. :P**

* * *

"So where are we going to start?" Zed asked eagerly.

Dusty's mind raced. _This isn't really happening. This can't be happening! This has to be a dream!_

"He ruined air racing," said Ripslinger, "so let's start by getting rid of those racing numbers." Then Dusty just started laughing.

"You've got to be kidding me!" he said. "You did all of this just so you could give me a new paint job? Haha, and I thought you were actually going to hurt me!" Then Luke laughed.

"Oh, we're not using any paint, kid," he said.

"Ehehe… what?" said Dusty, starting to get nervous again.

"We're going to use this instead!" He held up a knife. Dusty went speechless. He thought of how big those racing numbers were. The thought of that much being cut off made him nauseous.

Luke drove to the back of Dusty. As soon as Dusty felt the tip of the blade touch his tail he started frantically struggling. He couldn't move much, of course, but enough to startle Luke and make him drop the knife. Luke growled.

"Hold still, you spaz!" he said. "A little help, Benny?" The black forklift—apparently named Benny—drove to the other side of Dusty's tail and held Dusty in place with his arms. Dusty was shocked by how strong Benny was; he couldn't move at all now. He was completely powerless. Luke picked the knife back up and smiled as he prepared to strike.

Dusty grit his teeth as the knife was plunged into his tail. He moaned, holding back the screams that tried to escape from him as Luke carved. He carved agonizingly slowly, and seemed to really enjoy what he was doing. Finally, he dropped the knife and yanked the big dangling chunk of metal from Dusty's tail. Benny released his hold on Dusty and drove up to his nose.

"Hey!" he called to Luke, and held his arms up. "Toss it!" Luke threw the piece of metal to Benny and he caught it like it was a ball. Dusty could see the 'D7' on it. It was nauseating. Then he threw it at Zed, hitting him in the windshield.

"Ow, hey!" said Zed, as everyone else laughed. This was like a game to them, and they were having a lot of fun with it. Distracted by this, Dusty didn't even notice that Luke had picked up the knife again. He let out a yell as Luke started hacking away at his left side.

"Stop, STOP!" the small car yelled. For a brief moment, Dusty had the silly hope that he wanted to help him.

Luke stopped hacking and said, "What is it, Professor?"

"Don't use that!" said the Professor. "That would take way too long!"

"Yeah," said Benny, "this should do the job!" Dusty's eyes widened in horror. Benny was holding up a big chainsaw. While he turned it on, Dusty started struggling violently again. Not that it was helping at all. The roaring teeth sank into his left side and he screamed. The pain was more excruciating than anything he had ever felt before. He helplessly tried to pull away, but the more he moved, the deeper Benny cut into him. Still, he couldn't get himself to stop shaking violently, and therefore couldn't stop the already unbearable pain from getting worse. Finally, when he was starting to blink back tears, a huge piece of metal was severed from his body and it clattered on the floor. He saw that everyone was laughing again. What was it about his pain that they found so amusing?

Benny drove to the other side of Dusty. Dusty grit his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut, preparing for Benny to do it again. He focused hard on biting back the screams that seemed to entertain everyone as the saw mutilated his right side. But several tears escaped from his eyes. Then finally, another huge piece of his body hit the floor and the roar of the chainsaw stopped. Benny picked up the hunks of metal, both of which had a '7' on it, and casually piled them in a corner.

And this was just the beginning.


	5. Chapter 5

**So I was on a roll the other night, and I'm at Chapter 9 in this story in my notebook. 8)  
Oh, and look, I just randomly started telling the story in the first person! Hehe, well I didn't think it would work well in third person. Next chapter will also be told in first person, but from a different character's POV. I'm not a very organized person meh. **

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_POV-?_

Dad has been gone for about a week now. I have been taking care of my three younger brothers by myself all this time. This doesn't bother me; I'm sixteen years old, I can take care of myself. My mom died when I was nine, and my dad has a job that has him gone for days at a time, so I had to learn pretty early.

What does bother me is that Dad claimed that he was going on a business trip to Minnesota right before he left. First of all, he's a racer, and his next race is in July. That's more than a month away! He must think I'm stupid. Second of all, I am looking at my computer screen right now, and it says that he is located at 35° 44' N, and 39° 27' W, which is pretty dang far from Minnesota. Also, what the heck is he doing in the middle of the North Atlantic? Third of all, less than a day after he left I heard about the disappearance of Dusty Crophopper, and something makes me doubt that that's just a coincidence. Dad has loathed that crop duster since he beat him in the 2013 Wings Around the Globe Rally, and was even more furious after he lost again in the 2014 Rally a few months ago. He claimed that Dusty had ruined his life. That's great, Dad, blaming all of your problems on someone else. Fantastic. Why do I feel like I'm more mature than him?

Anyway, I'm not surprised that Dad would try to get revenge on Dusty. I just never thought it would get this… extreme. I wouldn't call him a nice guy but I never thought he would turn out to be a murderer. Am I overreacting? I don't think so. My computer says that he was in Minnesota the night Dusty disappeared. Not only that, but he was close to Propwash Junction. Pretty suspicious. Then he went to his place in the middle of the ocean. Whatever that was. A ship? An oil rig? Some unknown island? I don't know. But I know that he wouldn't drag Dusty all the way out there and then let him go back home alive. Only a total idiot would do that. I'm also pretty sure that he is not the only one involved in this crime. He probably has an entire team of delinquents working with him and his cronies. I don't know what they have been doing to Dusty, and I really don't want to know. I don't want to know what kind of monster my dad has become. But I will try to help Dusty if I can. I just need to find a way.

I actually really like Dusty. I've met him, he's a very nice guy. He certainly doesn't deserve whatever horrific thing that is happening to him right now. What a lot of people don't get is that just because I'm Ripslinger's son, doesn't mean that I hate Dusty. It also doesn't mean that I'm a jerk. Dad and I really haven't gotten along over the past few years. And I hate his cronies Ned and Zed. They're so snobby and see me as nothing more than a worthless glider. They don't like me either. They even gave me the stupid nickname "Propellerless-slinger," and that's what people have been calling me for years. Why do they think I'm okay with that? Not only is it stupid, but it also reminds me that I can't do what most planes can do. I grew up without an engine, so I can't fly fast like everyone else. I don't need people reminding me of that. I prefer to be called by my actual name, Michael.

But I don't lack the ability to fly. I'm still a plane. I can glide. Dad always told me that this was dangerous, that I should never try to fly on my own. That someday I would get myself killed. But you know, flying five hundred miles per hour over vast ocean, huge deserts, and the flipping Himalayas is not dangerous in the slightest. Yeah, whatever Dad. At this point, I don't trust anything that nut job says. Especially after finding out what I found out today.

I am going to help Dusty, and I have a plan to do so. It's really risky, but I don't care. I need to get to Propwash as quickly as possible. I just hope I'm not too late.

* * *

**Well Michael's pretty awesome...let's all hope his plan works! **


	6. Chapter 6

**I know, MAJOR delay. School has been rough and I haven't had much time. At least Thanksgiving break is coming up soon.  
This is probably the most depressing thing I have ever written. T_T Poor Dusty has no idea that help is coming to him, and has no hope that he will survive. But we know that there's a chance. 8) **

* * *

_POV-Dusty_

I knew that Ripslinger was a jerk. I knew that all too well. What I didn't know was that he was a psycho. But after what he and his friends just did to me, there is no doubt in my mind that they are all psychos.

But I'm not their first victim, and probably won't be their last. Turns out that I was right about them being serial killers. Well, the ones that I haven't met before are. Rip and his racing team temporarily joined forces with them so that they could finally get rid of me forever. I'm going to die today, I know that now. But I'm not worried about dying. Death will be the best thing that happens to me today. Which is exactly why they didn't kill me right away.

Right now I'm just focusing on breathing nice steady breaths, and trying not to focus on the intense pain in my tail and behind my wings where they sawed. But that is proving too difficult. It's like nothing I've ever felt before. I just want this horrible nightmare to end. But it's going to be a while.

* * *

I closed my eyes, wishing that this would all go away. That is, until I felt something hit me in the jaw so hard that I tasted my own blood. My eyes shot back open. It was Ripslinger.

"Seriously?" he said. "We wait an entire week for you to wake up, and you think you can just go right back to sleep after one hour? I'm sorry, Crophopper, but nap time is officially over!" I knew that fighting back was pointless. But his wing was just so _close_ to my mouth… I couldn't help myself. I grabbed his wing with my teeth and bit down hard. He backed away and howled in pain. Hey, he deserved it.

He scowled at me. I didn't care; he was going to hurt me no matter what. He turned on his propeller, and rammed into me at full speed. Pain shot up from my nose to my tail, and the blow knocked the wind out of me. As I caught my breath, he rammed into me a second time. I felt his propeller grind into the right side of my nose. I heard the others cheering as the world started to spin. He did it a third time. That was when I passed out.

For a brief moment, the pain was gone. I was free. I was flying. Until an electric shock zapped me back into reality and the pain was now worse than ever. It felt like I was going to fall apart. Maybe I _was_ about to fall apart. I could see the many dents and scratches in front of my eyes from the beating. My propeller was bent and bashed in. It was similar to what it looked like after I crashed in the Pacific in my first race last year, except even worse.

"Wow," said Ripslinger. "Is that all you ever do? Sleep? Well, I told you that nap time was over! You have your entire death to sleep!" Once again, everyone in the room cracked up. I said nothing. Talking was beyond my ability at that moment; it hurt just to breathe. It didn't help that Luke decided to slice at the left side of my nose with his knife, creating two nasty wounds just above my mouth. I let out a weak moan.

"You're such a brat," Luke said, and stabbed me again, this time closer to my eyes. "Now quit acting like that!" If I hadn't been in so much pain I would have laughed at the irony. They were being _really_ nice to me, weren't they?

I felt something nudge my tail and winced. It was a gentle nudge, but I was still sore from earlier. I hear Ned and Zed whispering and giggling behind me. Oh dear God, what now? Then I hear the sound of propellers turning on, and I knew what was coming. I braced myself for the impact. Their props chopped up my tail wings while I sucked in a sharp gasp of pain through my teeth. Bits of metal flew all over the place. But it only lasted a few seconds. It really wasn't that bad, at least compared to what happened earlier. But still, everything behind my wings was hurting so terribly that it was almost unbelievable. I wanted to cry.

I tried to think of happy things to take my focus off of the pain. I thought of home. I thought of my caring friends who always treated me like family. But this just made it worse. When I thought of these things, I couldn't help but also think about the fact that I was never going to see them again. Tears streamed down my sides. I had never missed home so much before. It seemed like it was worlds away now. Then I hear a groan from Luke. I squealed when he slashed at me again, carving a big jagged 'X' just above my wing.

"Aw, boohoo!" he said. "Guess what, kid, no one feels sorry for you." He hit me in the hood, splitting it so that I could see my ruined engine. The sight made me sick.

"He's just crying 'cause his boo-boos are hurting," said Zed in a mocking voice. He and Ned snickered. I sighed. Why did they have to be so ridiculously irritating?

"Are you missing your little friends? Wishing that they were here to save you?" said Ripslinger. I ignored him, and he laughed. "They don't care about you." I just gave him an unimpressed look. Did he really expect me to believe that?

"Oh, don't believe me?" he said. "Remember how they were acting weird the last time you saw them, like they were hiding something?" I did remember that. But, if he remembers that, that would mean…

"Y-you were th-there?" I said, my voice cracking. It was the first thing I said since I woke up. I didn't even sound like myself anymore; my voice was so hoarse.

"Yep. I was with your friends the whole time. That's what they were hiding. After all, we didn't want to spoil the... surprise!" He laughed again.

"No…no, no, no…" My voice choked up. Those words hurt. They cut much deeper than the knife had. Tears blurred my vision. Why would they do that? What did I do wrong? I squeezed my eyes shut and let the tears spill through my eyelids, forming puddles on the floor. I felt so empty.

I wished that they would just kill me right then and there. But unfortunately, they had other plans.

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**In case anyone is confused, I am going to make myself clear. Ripslinger is just being a douche and making up lies to upset Dusty. Dottie and Chug would never do that to him. But this does reveal that someone had been spying on them the whole time. (P.S. excuse my language :P)  
hope help gets there soon... stay tuned... ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Well... it's been a while... but I'm back. Do I have a reason? Absolutely. I got stuck on this chapter; the first draft I wrote was terrible XP I also had to deal with school and exams. Not to mention that I am very sensitive over people reading what I write and that submitting this story was literally the scariest thing I have ever done. This chapter was where I had to start pulling the plot together, which got so frustrating that I almost considered giving up on this story entirely. But I didn't realize exactly how much y'all wanted this chapter until three people begged me to update at the same time, and one of them was on my deviantART account. And then later someone on Instagram told me that she read it. XD I was not expecting that at all.  
Okay, just a note, these chapters aren't entirely in chronological order. Chapter 5 takes place between chapters 2 and 3, and this chapter takes place around the events of chapters 3 and 4. (Again, I'm not a very organized person :P)**

* * *

"Mike? MIKE! WAKE UP!"

"Wha- oof! Ow!" Michael woke up tumbling on the ceiling and back on the floor of the jet he was riding in.

"We're almost here! Stay awake, Mike, we're coming in for a landing soon," she said. Michael groaned.

"Can't I have five more minutes?" he whined, "I'm tired!"

"Do you think I wasn't tired when you woke me up at five in the morning so I could take you here? Anyway, we can't waste time!" Then Michael remembered where and why they were going. He dashed to the window, and got a glimpse of Propwash Junction far below them. It was smaller than he had imagined it to be, but still lots of wide open space, unlike New York City.

"Wow…" he said softly, gazing on the cornfields and beautiful landscapes. Then suddenly, the jet flipped over again, sending Michael tumbling again.

"Ow, stop that, Chloe!" Chloe laughed.

"Sorry, just making sure you're still awake," she said.

"Really?" Michael said, giggling, "I think you're just showing off."

"No I'm not!" she said defensively. Michael chuckled.

The two had known each other for ten years, since he was six and she was twelve. Chloe was like a big sister to Michael. She would often fly him places since he was disabled. Not that he couldn't fly on his own; he was actually very talented. It was mostly because of the adults that didn't like to see him flying because it was 'too dangerous for himself and others.' In reality, they were probably more likely to crash than he was by the time he was twelve. Chloe would often take him outside of the city so that he could practice gliding, and he was soon a very skilled glider, and could outfly several of his peers who had always seemed to believe that he was inferior.

"WHOA!" Michael was thrown into a wall when Chloe touched down. The landing was a lot rougher than he had expected. They quickly skidded to a halt, Chloe cracking up.

"You okay in there?" she said.

"I'm fine," Michael grunted. Chloe opened up her door.

As soon as he rolled out, Michael stopped in his tracks. The air was so fresh; it didn't even seem real to him. He took a deep, long breath, savoring the heavenly air.

"Uh, Mike?"

"Huh?" Michael snapped back to attention. "Oh, yeah." He rolled forward and looked around. It was so quiet, and not very many people driving around. The rugged pavement dug into his tires so much that his wheels ached.

_This is what Dusty drives on every day, _he thought to himself. _How can he stand it? _

Then he came upon the crime scene. The hangar was surrounded by yellow police tape, and was practically destroyed. Most of the broken glass had been cleaned up, but that didn't make the sight any less horrifying.

"Hey there," said a female voice behind him. He whirled around and saw a blue forklift with brown eyes. She was scowling at him, crossing her arms and tapping her tire. In one of her arms was a wrench.

"Uh…hi?" Michael said, smiling nervously. Suddenly, she charged at him, eyes filled with rage, and whacked him in the eyes with her wrench.

"Ow!" he yelped. He was blinded for a few seconds, then the next thing he saw when his sight came back to him was the forklift holding her wrench up in front of him as if it were a sword.

"Where is he?" she demanded.

"Um, uh…" he stammered. She was much smaller than him but gosh, she was intimidating. It didn't help that he didn't know who she was or why she was mad at him.

"Don't give me any of that! You know exactly who I'm talking about! Now, TELL ME WHERE HE IS RIGHT NOW!" she yelled, still holding her wrench in front of him. Then Michael realized what was going on and laughed.

"Lady, first of all, he's thirty-five degrees north and thirty-nine degrees west, assuming you're talking about Dusty, which is exactly what I'm here for. Second of all, if you're going to threaten someone to get information from them, don't do it… like this. I mean, what were you going to do with that wrench? And I could have easily just dashed away if I wanted to. It's not like I was trapped here."

Dottie dropped her wrench and stared at him. She could have sworn that the plane in front of her was Ripslinger, but now that she had a closer look at him, she could see that his eyes were bright green rather than pale blue green, his nose had no prop, and his body was more slender. His voice was higher too.

And he knew exactly where Dusty was. It seemed too good to be true. After days of almost no information as to what happened, he was telling her that he knew. But could she trust him? Who even was he?

She crossed her arms and said, "Who are you? And how do you know that?"

"Well, uh, my name is Michael. I'm Ripslinger's son, so I was able to figure it out last night. And… are you Dottie?"

"How do you know that?" Dottie said, shifting backwards slightly in surprise.

"Dusty told me about you. He said that you could be pretty scary when you're angry, and he was right."

"You know him?" she said. How could Dusty be having conversations with Ripslinger's kid? There was no way in hell that Ripslinger would allow that.

"Heck yeah, I know him! He's a good friend of mine! And he needs help, pronto!" Dottie was still skeptic about this, but if it was actual evidence, then the spies would need to know.

"We need to tell Holley and Finn," Dottie said, "they'll know what to do."

"Who?"

"The agents investigating this case. They're in that jet." She pointed to a spy jet resting near the Fill N' Fly. He was about the size of Chloe. They rolled up to him and told him that they needed to talk to Holley and Finn. He opened his door and they drove inside. Michael's eyes widened as he glanced around. The inside of that jet was the coolest thing he had seen in his life.

"Hey," said Dottie, "I thought that I should inform you guys that this guy right here claims that he has information on Dusty, including his exact location." Holley and Finn exchanged questioning glances. Dottie nudged Michael.

"Tell them what you know!" she said.

"Oh, well, um, I uh…" he stuttered, and trailed off. He wasn't entirely sure where to start, and he was a little shy around them. They were actual spies!

"Let it out," said Holley.

"Uh, my dad, uh, Ripslinger and uh, a few others, not sure who, or how many, they um… they teamed up and kidnapped Dusty, and… and probably had been planning it for… for some time, considering how well it was… how well it was executed. So they're… uh, in the middle of the North Atlantic, at twenty— ah, I mean thirty-five degrees north and thirty-nine degrees west where they hold him hostage. What they have been doing with him, I don't know, but… but whatever it is, it's bad. So…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" said Finn, "How on earth did you figure all that out?"

"Oh, um, well…" Michael said, "I… figured it out using my computer… and um, well… logic?"

"So you're basing all of this on your own guesses?" said Finn, giving him an unimpressed look. Michael's irritation completely dissolved his shyness.

"No! Finn, do you not think that it's suspicious that Ripslinger was in Propwash Junction on April the twenty-third, and has been out there in the ocean since the twenty-fourth?"

"And exactly how do you know that?"

"My computer can track anyone in my family, that's how. It's a thing called 'Find my Friends', ever heard of it?"

"Okay, then how do you know that he's teamed up with others? You sound pretty confident about that."

"I know he can't do something like that by himself. He's not a mastermind!"

"That is pretty good evidence," Holley said.

"But," said Finn, "are you sure we can trust Ripslinger's son? Seems like some kind of trap to me." Michael scowled. Now he wasn't just irritated, he was getting angry.

"Dusty's my _friend_, Finn," said Michael, "and my dad can't change that. Don't compare me to him." Just then, the door opened, and a shocked Skipper was in the doorway.

"Michael? What are you doing here?" he said.

"You know him too?!" Dottie exclaimed.

"Yeah, he's a good friend of mine and Dusty's."

"I told you!" Michael said. "I'm not a liar!"

"So," said Skipper, "what's going on?"

"I know where Dusty is, Skip. I figured it out late last night."

"What?!" Skipper began to wonder if he was just dreaming.

"Or so he claims," Finn said.

"Michael," said Skipper, ignoring Finn, "what were you able to figure out?" Michael told him everything without leaving out a detail, and without stuttering. He told him about what he saw on his computer, and how Ripslinger left just before Dusty disappeared.

"Wow…" said Skipper after he finished. "You're amazing!"

"You believe him?" said Finn.

"Don't worry guys, you can trust him. I have no doubt about it."

"Yeah," Michael added, "your trust issues are wasting our time. We need to leave ASAP if you all want Dusty back alive."

"How do you know that he's still alive? He could easily be dead. He might have been dead for the past few days, for all we know!" Finn said.

"Well, uh, I… don't know for sure, but even if he's dead, we could still find some important information. And if he's alive, we have a chance, and we can't throw it away!"

"He's right, Finn," said Holley, "we really should get going." Finn sighed.

"Alright, we'll go. Siddeley will take me, Holley, and Michael over there and we'll see what we can find."

"No," said Dottie, "I'm coming."

"What?" said Skipper. "Dottie, are you crazy?"

"But—" Holley started.

"Did I stutter?" Dottie interrupted. "I…am…coming!"

"Uh, guys," said Michael, "I don't think just the four of us is good enough anyway. We should take Dottie, I mean, you'll never know when you'll need someone who has arms! Also, I think it would be good if my jet friend Chloe flew behind us, in case something goes wrong. And, we're probably going to need a trailer. I doubt that Dusty will be able to move on his own if we find him." He felt bad when he saw Dottie and Skipper wince at that last sentence. Finn hesitated for a few seconds.

"Okay, I guess that's not a bad idea. We can get a small trailer to take with us, and we'll also take Mater so that he can tow it."

"Who's Mater?" Michael asked.

"He's a tow truck friend of ours from Radiator Springs. He arrived here a few days ago to help us out with the case," Holley explained.

"Alright," said Michael, nodding, "sounds good. Let's roll!"

They gathered up the group of seven and they planned everything out together. Holley, Finn, Mater, Michael, and Dottie would all ride in Siddeley, while Chloe takes off after them, and keeps close watch on everything around. She would also be carrying some extra fuel, as they would probably need it for the trip back. When they arrived at the base, Siddeley would land first, while Chloe would stay in the air for a few minutes with an aerial view of the base, and maybe snap some photos. Then she would land by Siddeley, and give them any important information that she found, if any. They didn't plan anything after that, as it would depend on the circumstance.

And the rescue team was soon on its way.


	8. Chapter 8

**Well, look where we are! This was the first scene that popped in my head when I thought of writing this story a while back. It took me a while to form a little bit of a plot in my mind to go with this idea. But the story I had then was a lot different from what you guys have been reading here. Even the title is different from what I originally had. So yeah, it's evolved a lot. :) Btw this is not the last chapter. There will be at least 12 chapters. Also, on a side note, if you want to ask me any questions, please don't do it in a guest review. It annoys me so much when you guys ask questions that I can't answer.**

* * *

One thing Dusty learned about these guys was that they enjoyed seeing others' cries of pain. That was why he was there. He was their little chew toy. They were slowly tearing him apart for the fun of it. He had no idea how long he had been there. It must have been hours.

He saw that Acer was holding a can of oil and stared at it longingly. He had already been thirsty when he awoke from his week-long sleep; now it was a thousand times worse.

"Oh, do you want this?" said Acer, noticing Dusty's stare. "Take it!" Dusty couldn't believe it. He actually gave him the can. Without even hesitating, he sucked down the entire thing in one huge gulp. It seems obvious that Acer didn't do this out of kindness, but Dusty wasn't thinking straight, and the fact that it was almost definitely a trick didn't cross his mind.

Not until he saw that everyone in the room was staring at him as if waiting for something to happen. The drink was soothing for the first few seconds, but then his insides started burning intensely as if he had just swallowed fire. He heaved and moaned as the burning got more intense. His vision blurred, and he fainted.

* * *

Michael had always imagined a rescue mission to be exciting and intense like in the action movies. But he had probably never been so bored in his life on that jet. He and Mater slept most of the way. Holley and Finn also fell asleep a few times. Even Dottie dozed off briefly once or twice, but most of the time she was fidgeting anxiously. The poor girl hadn't slept well since the night the gunshots had fired.

She longed to know what Dusty was going through while they were just sitting quietly in a comfortable jet, hoping it wasn't anything too awful. Though how bad could it be?

* * *

To his surprise, Dusty woke up to an empty room. He was still strapped down, alone. Desperately, he yanked on the metal bindings, hoping that he could possibly break free.

"Agh!" he cried out softly as his abused body screamed in protest. He realized that it was pointless to even try. He wouldn't have been able to do it in top condition, let alone when he was weak and tired after several beatings. Crushed, Dusty shed another tear.

"Help…" he whimpered hopelessly. No one was going to help him. No one even cared. His heart sank even more when the gang came back through the door, although he wasn't sure why they had let him sleep that time.

Grinning, Benny rolled up next to him and leaned on his left wing.

"Good morning," he said, "did you miss me?" Dusty scowled and shook him off.

"Morning?" Zed repeated. "It's 6 PM; it 's only been two hours!"

"Yeah, whatever," Benny replied, "it's not like he knew that anyway."

"What are you going to do now?" Dusty rasped.

"Oh!" said Benny. "This is the best part, kid!" Dusty shuddered. The 'best part'? Oh God…

Acer drove up to a button while Dusty braced himself for the worst. _Click!_ Dusty gasped as the metal braces on his wings popped open. He violently surged forward, forgetting that his landing gear were still chained to the floor.

"Ow!" His body protested again. Benny laughed.

"Did you really think that we were just going to let you go?" he said, then he grabbed Dusty's left wing and looked at the rest of the group.

"You ready guys?" he said. His small audience cheered. Then Dusty was hit by a wave of panic as he realized what was going on.

"No!" he cried. "Nononononononono…please don't do this… please… I'll do anything…" Tears welled up in his eyes.

"Aw, don't worry," said Grem, "this won't hurt a bit."

"Yeah," said Acer, "but it will hurt a lot!" They cracked up.

"Too late, Crophopper," Ripslinger said, smiling. "Just go ahead, Benny." Benny grinned, and he yanked, ripping the wing off as if he was tearing apart a piece of paper. Being too weak to yell at this point, Dusty just let out a soft squeak and a few tears as his left side was met with an overwhelmingly searing pain.

As soon as he felt Benny touch his right wing, he desperately jerked to the left. His badly damaged left gear snapped under his weight and he toppled over. His right gear, still chained to the floor, cracked as well from being yanked so hard. He started heaving and moaning. Benny chuckled and grabbed the wing. This time he didn't rip it off in the blink of an eye. Rather, he slowly bent it downwards, Dusty whining in anguish, until it snapped. His right gear gave out and he hit the floor, gasping in pain, and whimpering.

Benny drove in front of Dusty's nose and looked into his watery blue eyes. He was now a few inches taller than the plane. Dusty scowled back at him.

"You know," Benny said, "I always wanted one of these." He grabbed Dusty's nose while his bent prop twitched in agitation. "Mind if I borrow this?" Dusty cried out as the forklift ripped his propeller from his crippled body. Benny put the propeller on his head and turned around.

"How do I look?" he said, and his audience burst out laughing. He faced Dusty again and took it back off. The plane was whimpering and shedding tears. Benny sneered.

"You want it back, crybaby?" he said. He violently shoved the broken prop into Dusty's nose, pushing him back a little.

"Hm…" he said, as if wondering why it didn't reconnect. Then he shoved into Dusty a second time, more forcefully, opening up a few cracks.

"Third time's the charm?" He did it again. Dusty moaned. Then Benny backed up, and violently rammed it in a fourth time, causing Dusty's tail to bang into the wall behind him.

"Auugh!" Dusty yelped. Benny smirked.

"Ah well," he said, tossing the broken prop behind him, "I guess it's not yours anymore." He rolled to the back of Dusty. Dusty flinched as Benny stroked the large wound on his left side that he himself had inflicted hours ago.

"Oh, come on," said Benny, "I barely even touched you." Suddenly, he violently pressed Dusty's midsection down and smiled when he heard the plane yelp again. Still pressing down with his left arm, he grabbed the tail with his right and pushed it forward bending it to the right, and a piercing screech filled the room.

"STOP IT! STOP IT!" Dusty started sobbing. "Please… stop…"

* * *

The radar showed that the team was close to their destination.

"Are you sure he's out here?" Dottie said. "There doesn't seem to be land for several miles!"

"Well, duh," said Michael, "that's kind of the idea."

"Should we get a closer look?" Mater suggested.

"Yeah, I'll start descending," Siddeley said. "If anyone sees something, tell us." They all looked closely at the vast ocean as Siddeley descended. After five agonizing minutes, Holley spotted an island, and everyone cheered. Dusty was a mere few minutes away from them.

* * *

"Whoa, Benny, look!" Luke said, gazing on Dusty's ruined back. "I can see the inside of him!" Dusty's already wounded left side had been stretched too thin when he was bent, and a gaping hole had opened up. Dusty wanted to throw up when he felt the forklift's arm touch the inside of his body.

"I can _feel _the inside of him!" Luke exclaimed. Benny chuckled.

"Bet you can't tear out his innards," he said. Luke snorted.

_You have got to be kidding, _Dusty thought.

"Sure I can! Just watch me!" Luke began to tug. Dusty coughed violently, and after about ten seconds he felt an incredibly sharp pain around where Luke's arm was and let out a sharp moan.

"I think I broke something!" Luke bragged. Benny merely pushed him out of the way.

"The hole's not even big enough, genius," he said. "Let me show you how it's done. You still have that knife?" Luke handed him the knife. Standing on Dusty's right, he reached over to where the hole was, stuck the knife in, and began to carve. The plane let out a low wail. Could it get any worse?

Just then, Grem burst into the room, panting. Dusty didn't even notice that he had left.

"What's wrong?" Acer asked.

"We…have to…get out of here…now," Grem panted. "A…a jet just…landed…nearby."

"What?!" Professor Zündapp exclaimed. "But that's impossible!"

"No, I saw it with my own eyes! We need to go!" Grem said. They looked at Dusty. If someone found him alive, they would be busted for sure. They all knew it.

"I'll finish him off," said Ripslinger. He rammed into Dusty. His right side slammed into the wall just before everything went black and his breathing came to a stop…


	9. Chapter 9

**Greetings from Florence! I know I said that I would have no way of uploading/typing the story while I'm in Italy, but it turns out I was wrong. I have Wi-Fi in my villa, and I did bring my computer.  
****Anyway, I understand that y'all are annoyed af with my flakiness in updating (I would be too XP) so to make up for that, I'll have chapter 10 up TONIGHT! I swear on my life I will! (It is 8 AM currently where I am, so it might be tomorrow depending on where you live)**

* * *

"Um… now what?" said Dottie. They had been so excited to land; but now that they had landed, they weren't entirely sure what to do.

"Siddeley, do you see anything?" Finn asked.

"Nothing, Finn."

"Maybe this ain't the right island," said Mater.

"But this is the only piece of land for probably hundreds of miles!" said Dottie. "If this is the wrong one, Michael lied to us."

"You know," Michael said, glaring, "I have better things to do than go on fake rescue missions to the middle of nowhere!"

Then suddenly, a loud _WHIRRRRR _came from outside, silencing them all. Time seemed to stop altogether as the sound slowly faded away. Everyone just exchanged glances for a long while."What was that?" Dottie finally said, her voice shaking.

"It was a helicopter. A big one," Siddeley said.

"A helicopter?" Michael repeated. He started to get a bad feeling.

"Siddeley, taxi to where you saw it take off," Finn instructed. "We might find something. Siddeley did what Finn said. Sure enough, a small run-down building came into view. Michael gulped. He was dreaded what they were about to see inside the building, and his mind was racing. _Dusty's dead. We're too late. My dad is a murderer. My brothers will have to grow up without a mom or a dad. I could have stopped this. It's my fault. It's over. It's over. _

Siddeley stopped just in front of the building and opened his door. Without a moment of hesitation, Dottie dashed out and entered the building.

"Dottie!" Holley called after her. "Don't go in there by yourself!" The rest of the group quickly followed her into the building, and then they all went speechless. Inside was incredibly cluttered. However, it wasn't just ordinary clutter. Wheels, props, wings, hoods— a bunch of broken parts that once belonged to cars and planes. It was the most sickening sight that any of them had ever seen.

Then Holley spotted tire marks. She identified three of them as Zündapp, Grem, and Acer.

"How long have they been doing this?" she wondered.

"Looks like a long time," Finn replied, "And we were worried about the World Grand Prix. I can't believe we never knew about _this. _Who knows how many they have killed!" Then suddenly, Dottie screamed, and everyone jumped and looked at her. It didn't take long for them to figure out what was wrong. She was holding a broken piece of orange-painted metal with a white 'D7' on it.

"No…no!" She started to hyperventilate as she found her friend's wings, landing gear, and propeller, as well as two bigger pieces of broken metal, each with a '7' painted on.

"He wasn't awake when they did this… was he?" she whimpered.

"Nah," Michael said, doing his best to keep himself together, "My dad would never do something _that _cruel." He was partly saying this to reassure himself; he really had no idea.

"Hey," said Mater, "why's there a second floor?" Indeed, there was a ramp leading up to a second floor. Dottie raced up, hoping to find her friend. Then she came upon a door that said 'Party Room' on it. The thought of what that probably meant made her sick. Tentatively, she pressed the button next to it and drove in. The room was so dark that she could barely see anything.

"Hello?" she called, feeling around the room until her eyes finally adjusted. The room appeared to be designed for torture, which wouldn't have been surprising given what she had just seen earlier. Still, she tried to block out images in her mind of her friend being cut to pieces as she looked at the sharp tools lying around. She saw something else that was larger than her, though she couldn't make out what it was. She tentatively rolled closer to it. Then she found the light, turned it on… and screamed. It wasn't like the scream from earlier; this one was much louder and filled with much more anguish and horror. It was the kind of scream that was never forgotten by those who heard it, whether or not they knew what had caused it.

It was exactly what she had been looking for, and yet, she wished that she had not found it. Dusty was so banged up that even she, who had known him for most of his life, did not recognize him immediately. Whimpering, Dottie gingerly placed her arms on either side of his torn nose. He was still warm.

"Dusty? I'm here! We can go home now! Come on, please… don't leave me now… we can get you to the hospital, and you'll be okay!" Tears blurred her vision. They were too late. Dusty was dead. And they had come so close. It just wasn't fair. "No! Breathe, Dusty! PLEASE, BREATHE!"

She rolled to his left side and desperately knocked on his head. She normally wouldn't have been able to do this, but Dusty was significantly shorter than when she had last seen him. Then she noticed the large wound near his tail where a '7' used to be. It was cut really deep; part of it exposed his interior. Several cracks branched really far from it, indicating that it was probably cut with a powerful tool. It didn't look fatal, but it did look tremendously painful. So did what was left of his wing. The area around it was extremely cracked as if someone had attempted to tear it off but gave up. Though what upset her the most was when she felt the area around his eyes. It was wet. With tears. That could only mean one thing. Devastated, Dottie wrapped her arms around him and sobbed.

"I-I'm so sorry, Dusty…"

* * *

**Yes, I know it looks bad... okay, it is bad, but it gets better... Q.Q**


	10. Chapter 10

**See? I told you I'd have it up by tonight! It's poorly written but I can always change it later :P Didn't want more angry readers, you know? Anyway, like half the story is poorly written so who cares? xDD**

* * *

Michael was speechless. What he had just seen was an image that he would never be able to get out of his head. It would have been awful enough if the one responsible _hadn't_ been his own father. Tears leaked from his eyes. What had happened to the daddy he used to know?

He and Chloe were taking Dottie back to Propwash Junction. Dusty's body was with the spies for investigation, and they said that they would return it to Propwash as soon as they were finished. The ride back to Propwash was much different from the ride leaving it. No one slept. No one spoke. No one hoped.

There was no more tension. No more fear. And no more life. Only grief.

Dottie was whimpering under Michael's wing, still clutching the piece of Dusty's tail that she had found. Michael wished that there were something he could do for her. He felt guilty for not figuring out the situation earlier, even though he had done all that he could do.

Dottie did not want to go back to Propwash, as she knew that she would have to tell her friends about what happened. No one wants to be the bringer of bad news. Michael didn't want to go home either. His dad would probably be there already, wondering where he was. After what he had just seen, he had no desire to see his dad again. Fortunately, they had decided it wasn't safe to go back home anyway, so he was going to stay in Propwash Junction.

Eventually, the tiny town came into sight. The citizens were just doing their everyday activities, oblivious to the horrible tragedy that had just happened. Those who weren't oblivious wished that they were. The only thing worse that not knowing was knowing.

Chloe finally touched down, and for a long moment, everything was still and silent. Then her door opened.

"Well, time to say goodbye…" she said. Her usually bright and cheerful voice was now lifeless and dull. Both Dottie and Michael rolled out sadly.

No one said much before she departed. Just then, a red car with green eyes drove up to them.

"Hey," she said, "are you Ripslinger's son?"

"Uh, yeah?" Michael replied.

"Propellerless-slinger, right?" Michael resisted the urge to hit her.

"Well, yes, and no. That's not what I prefer—"

"I don't care what name you prefer!" she interrupted. "I just want to know why you're in Propwash!" Michael jolted back in surprise. What was up with this lady?

"Well, it's kind of a long story, and it's none of your business anyway," he said, then began to turn and drive away. But the car just sped in front of him and blocked his path.

"Yes it is. Tell me!" she yelled. This disturbed Dottie; she did not recognize this car from anywhere.

"Okay, who even are you, and why are you harassing him? You don't live here either!" Dottie said. The car turned to her.

"I'm Katherine, and I'm an agent. I need to know what's going on!" Then Dottie remembered Chug talking about another agent named Katherine.

"Oh! Okay, then why didn't you just say so? Okay, here's what's going on. His dad teamed up with a group of criminals and kidnapped Dusty. He managed to figure everything out and brought a rescue team together. We found Dusty, but unfortunately he's dead now. Case closed. Goodbye."

They rolled away. Katherine didn't follow them; she seemed satisfied with the information she had just received.

Soon, Skipper and Chug noticed them and rushed up anxiously.

"Dottie!" Chug said. "What happened? Did you find Dusty? Is he okay?"

"What are you holding?" Skipper asked, looking at the orange object clutched tightly in her arms. Dottie sniffled; then she dropped the piece of metal and started bawling. This answered all of their questions. Both Chug and Skipper widened their eyes in horror and immediately started crying with her.

"Oh my God…" Skipper murmured. It was like he was having a nightmare about the worst-case scenario, but couldn't escape from it. It wasn't fair. The kid had merely been sleeping in his own hangar in a town that hadn't seen a murder case in twenty-three years when he was kidnapped and killed. The chances of that happening to anyone were very slim. And he did not even live to be twenty.

All because of Ripslinger. Skipper clenched his teeth._ That son of a bitch will never get away with this. _

However, Ripslinger and his friends weren't exactly happy either, and were targeting the small town a second time…


	11. Chapter 11

**It still drives me crazy that I can't respond to guest reviews =_= Anyway, when I said that it would get better, I didn't mean that Dusty would wake up in the next chapter and everything would be hunky dory. I meant that the story wouldn't have a sad ending, hence why I didn't put it in the 'tragedy' category. Stories with character deaths can still have happy endings (ex: The Lion King) We've got some time before the story ends, so it's not 'emotionally' getting better yet.  
And... 50 REVIEWS OMFG! *faints***

* * *

_May 8, 2015_

The story of Dusty's premature death had been all over the news for the past week. The whole world was in shock. It hadn't been officially confirmed that the RPX team was guilty, but few people doubted it. No one knew where Ripslinger or his sidekicks were, and it didn't seem like a coincidence. They were most definitely in hiding somewhere to avoid being arrested. After all, a crime like that would put someone in prison for a long time.

And as for Propwash Junction. Life just wasn't the same for his closest friends. They were still getting used to not seeing him everyday. They would never see his face or hear his voice ever again. It just never felt right, especially since it happened so suddenly. They didn't lose Dusty. He was taken from them. And that made it much more painful.

His friends from the Wings Around the Globe and Piston Peak had arrived a few days ago. What used to be birthday preparations were now funeral preparations. And once again, there was only one thing missing: Dusty himself. Dottie finally decided to radio the spies.

"What is taking so long? You've had more than a week!"

"Well, we're having some… difficulties…" Holley replied uncomfortably.

"Holley, what in the world is going on?" Dottie demanded.

"I'm sorry, but I can't tell you. It's classified."

"Classified?! We're talking about my best friend! Why would you need to keep that information from _me?_"

"It's for… safety purposes… the point is I can't tell you. I'm sorry."

"Safety purposes?"

"No more questions," said Holley, and she hung up. Dottie groaned and went outside. Could the past two weeks possibly get any worse? It had been a total nightmare for her and her friends.

Just then, a black forklift with brown eyes that was about twice her size rolled up to her with a seductive look on his face.

"Hey there, beautiful," he said. "What's your name?" He stroked her on the right side of her face. _Oh, so it can get worse, _Dottie thought to herself. She batted his arm away.

"I'm really not in the mood! Get away from me, you creep!"

"Girl, what's your problem?"

"My problem? I've had the worst two weeks of my entire life and you—"

"Well, maybe I can make you feel better!" the forklift interrupted, and lifted her up by the sides.

"No! GET OFF OF ME, NOW!" Dottie yelled, squirming in his arms. Then Katherine came up behind him.

"Benny! Put her down, now!" she demanded. Benny obeyed, smiling sheepishly.

"I just wanted to know her name…"

"My name is Dottie! Now goodbye!" Dottie turned around and drove away.

"Do you… do you think she knows?" Benny asked Katherine after Dottie was out of earshot.

"Oh, definitely not," Katherine replied. "She'd go completely ballistic if she knew. Dusty was like a little brother to her."

* * *

_That night…_

"Hey! Kid! Wake up!"

"Huh?" Michael yawned and groggily opened his eyes. Katherine was right in front of his face, in the middle of the night. That couldn't mean anything good.

"Wait, what's going on?"

"The people that killed Dusty know you're here and they want to kill you! You have to get out of here as soon as possible!"

"What? But… why?"

"Well, obviously they know you found them out," Katherine replied. But Michael was still shocked. First Ripslinger killed Dusty, and now he was trying to kill his own son? "But that doesn't matter right now. Let's go!" Katherine drove out of the hangar. Michael followed her, trembling in fear as he imagined what would have happened to him if those sadistic crooks had caught him. Little did he know that that was exactly what he was driving himself into.

They met up with Benny at the exit.

"Glad you made it! I was worried about you Michael!" Then suddenly, he pounced on Michael and held him down.

"Whoa! Personal space, dude!" He didn't realize that he was in trouble until Katherine smiled ominously.

"Do you want to know the real reason I was in Propwash Junction?" she said. That was when Michael got a really bad feeling inside.

"Uh… to deliver pizza?" he said nervously. Ah, if only that were the case.

"I was there to make sure Dusty was killed. And now I'm doing the same for you."

"WHAT? NO! HOW COULD YOU—" Benny hit him in the head and the glider went silent.

* * *

When Michael woke up again, he was tied to the floor. Though it wasn't the same place where Dusty's life had been taken, being much brighter and cleaner, he knew that his situation was probably not any better. His dad and his racing team were talking with three cars and Benny. The floor seemed to be moving, indicating that they were inside of a moving vehicle who was much larger than Chloe.

"I am so screwed," he said under his breath.

"Uh, boss?" Zed spoke out, "He's awake."

"Great!" said a bright green car. "Now, where are the tools?" Michael's heart dropped upon hearing that question. He trembled and blinked back tears of terror. An orange car brought out a cart of sharp weapons, and Michael started hyperventilating as soon as he saw it.

"It's too bad we don't have the Electrocutor in here," said the orange car.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on!" Ripslinger said. "Don't touch him! He's my son! I'll take care of him." Michael sighed in relief as his dad freed him from his bindings.

"Come with me," he said softly, turning and rolling away without even looking back to see if Michael was following him. Although it didn't seem like he could trust him, it was preferable to being cut apart by those other bozos. He followed his dad into another room.

"Okay, now that we're alone together…" Ripslinger said. Then suddenly, he rammed Michael into a wall and his son cried out. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING! ARE YOU CRAZY?"

"Says the guy who tortured and murdered my friend for beating him in a race," Michael scoffed. Eyes filled with rage, Ripslinger banged his son into the wall again.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?" Ripslinger yelled. "DUSTY? YOUR FRIEND?"

"He may have lived a short life bit he did a lot more good with it than you ever will!" He immediately regretted saying that when his dad mercilessly bashed him into the wall twice more. He moaned. His whole body was throbbing.

"He ruined me! And so did you, you little brat!"

"Come on, Dad! You know this isn't the real you! You're better than this!"

Ignoring him, Ripslinger rolled over to a lever and pushed it with his wing. The door to the outside opened up, showing that they were miles above the ground. Michael began to panic.

"Dad? What are you doing?!"

"I won't let them kill you," Ripslinger said, rolling behind Michael. "So I'm going to do it myself."

"What? NO! PLEASE, DAD, NO!" Ripslinger bashed into his son again, although this time sending him spinning down uncontrollably towards the ground far below.

* * *

**8D MORE CLIFFHANGERRRRRSSSSS!**


	12. Chapter 12

**I admit, I could've gotten this done a lot sooner but I got _really_ lazy... Q.Q  
So now we have another pair of first-person chapters. This chap is being told from three POVs rather than one.  
**

* * *

_POV- Dottie_

Everything is continuing to get ever worse. My best friend was kidnapped and murdered, Holley is leaving me in the dark, an idiot harassed me, and now Michael is missing. I can't believe we let this happen _twice. _I feel like a total idiot. It seems like the most logical explanation is that Ripslinger and his gang kidnapped him because he found them out, but first of all, how did they know he found them out? We never actually met up with them; the only one of us that they saw was Siddeley from a distance. Second of all, how did they find out he was here? That was supposed to be kept secret! That's why he was here, for protection! Is someone here able to contact them?

It's all so confusing. I have so many questions. Not only about Michael's disappearance, but Dusty too. How did they manage to not only take him away from home, but also take him thousands of miles away without being seen? What in the world did they do to him? Are they doing the same to Michael? What is going on with the spies and why can't they tell me anything? Did yet another bad thing happen?

Everyone in town is freaking out now. I don't blame them; two planes have been attacked and probably both murdered within the same thirty days, and as a result of that, the TMST have us shut down again. But this time, no one is worried about the Corn Festival. Everyone is worried that they'll be next. They're all either doing everything in their power to make their homes more secure, or they're moving out.

If anyone's next, it's probably me. I really don't know who to trust anymore.

* * *

_POV- Ripslinger_

I watch as Michael falls from my sight, and my anger quickly dissolves. I can no longer hide my true emotions. I start sobbing like a baby, knowing that my life has been torn apart. He was right, it wasn't the real me. Unfortunately, I really had no say in whether he lived or died. That was Professor's decision, and as much as I tried, there was no negotiating. I had no real desire to kill Michael. But that was preferable to letting them kill him and watching him suffer for several hours. I couldn't bear to see that happen again, especially to my own son. Dusty's cries have been haunting me all day and all night. The cries of the poor innocent crop duster that we brutally murdered last week. And yes, I admit he was innocent. He didn't ruin my life; I'm responsible for that. And now I've just screwed it up more. I never should have punished him for something that was my fault. And even if it was his fault, no one deserves to go through something like that. What I did was absolutely heinous. It was about 11 AM when he woke up to find out that he had been kidnapped, and about 7 PM by the time I finally ended his suffering. That's eight hours. Well, technically six since he was unconscious for two hours, but still, that's a long time to be stabbed repeatedly, sawn, carved, electrocuted, beaten, and ripped apart. I'm going to be honest. I didn't show it, but watching him break down into sobs like that made me want to go outside and drown myself in the ocean.

I was really angry with myself, but I took that anger out on Michael. Yeah, he was making sassy comments that made me angrier, just like any other typical teenager, but my anger was definitely misdirected. I didn't want to admit that what Michael did was right, and I'm admitting it now. But it's too late; I'm never seeing him again. The kid can't even fly, and there's no way he'll survive a fall from that height. I wish I could have done this differently. I wish I hadn't been stupid enough to trust those murderers. But there's no going back now.

_Leyla wouldn't have wanted this..._

* * *

_POV-Michael_

If I hadn't been falling to my death, this probably would have been the most amazing experience of my life. I had never flown so high above the ground! Well, I wasn't exactly flying, of course. I couldn't tell which way was up and which way was down, and the spinning was making me incredibly nauseous. Straightening out in this situation would be difficult no matter what, but I was somewhat banged up from my dad's wrath, making it next to impossible.

_Next to_ impossible. Not impossible. Which meant that I couldn't give up there. I folded my landing gear in and began trying to adjust myself. Fortunately the damage that he had done to me was minimal, and didn't have much effect on my aerodynamics. The only real problem was that… it hurt. It hurt _badly_. And that made it more difficult to use my flaps, as doing that made the pain worse. But I just had to suck it up or I'd be dead. I clenched my teeth and started adjusting.

After what seemed like forever, a surge of relief and a little bit of pride washed over me seeing that I had stopped spinning, until I noticed just how close the ground that I was still diving towards was and freaked out. I frantically applied my elevators and got my landing gear out, seconds before my tires hit the ground at an angle and my right gear snapped, causing me to flip over, and my canopy slammed into the pavement. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think, and it felt like I was on fire. Of all things, it had to be a road. Why couldn't it have been the grass?

But it wasn't long before the pain faded away, along with the world…

* * *

**So to any of you who are thinking: Who's Leyla? Don't worry, you didn't miss anything. You might remember that in chapter 5 Michael mentions that his mother died when he was nine years old, and since Ripslinger is his father, well... you can figure out the rest, right?  
I promise that the next chapter won't take nearly as long as the past couple of chaps. I know because the only reason I'm not putting it up now is because it's my personal favorite chapter and I want to leave some time between this one and that one. **


	13. Chapter 13

Everything was black. My world was darkness. All I could hear were screams all around me, but they were garbled, as if they were underwater. I choked for air, but it felt like I was breathing through a straw. I was trapped. Completely trapped. And then suddenly the noise died out and I was overwhelmed with light as I gasped in a huge breath of sweet air. My eyes fluttered as I struggled to open them. It felt like I hadn't seen light in a hundred years. However light wasn't the only thing that overwhelmed me; intense pain all over my body came with it. It felt like I had gotten run over by a train. Maybe I had; I couldn't remember anything that had happened. I couldn't even remember my name.

Colors began to meet my vision, and I made out a dark blur coming closer and closer until it was right in front of me. Then I managed to make out two green eyes, and I heard an older male voice.

"I knowed it! I was right! I KNOWED IT!"

"Wha…" I breathed. What was he talking about?

"You been out fer nine days! Everyone thought you was dead! How ya feelin' bud?"

"Awful…" I croaked. Then I suddenly began to cough violently. It burned terribly; I thought my body was about to rip open. I felt someone put a cloth over my mouth. When my coughing fit ended, I opened my eyes and saw a rusty tow truck in front of me, holding a bloody cloth.

"Dad gum…" he said, staring in shock. I moaned and blinked back tears. Every breath I took hurt. The truck drove over to my left side and nuzzled me gently.

"Shhh…" he said. "You're gonna be okay." Then I realized that about half of my body was wrapped in bandages. It was very rare to need to use bandages; those were only used for the deepest of wounds. I was completely unable to move, and my body was lopsided, leaning to the right.

"What… what happened to me?" I asked, swallowing the pain. The truck just laughed.

"I dunno, you tell me!" Another acute pain shot up through me and I moaned. The truck's face faded to a concerned expression, and he looked rather guilty for laughing.

"Sorry. Here, take this," he said, placing a can in front of me. I just stared at him. In my lopsided position, I was unable to drink from it. "Don' worry, I'll help ya with that." His tow cable wrapped around my back, and he pulled me upright. It stung a little, but I didn't show it. The tow truck was so kind; I didn't want to make him feel bad. I was now level with the drink, and I took a sip. It was heavenly! I gulped it down, though a little too fast. I hiccupped. The truck smiled.

"I know how to cure those." What he did next was the last thing I expected him to do: he kissed me on the cheek. Seeing my shocked expression, he cracked up. "Works every time!" I giggled. The pain had begun to subside. He seemed quite pleased that I looked happier than before.

"Nobody can hurt you now," he said. I smiled weakly, but still sincerely. And then— it all came back to me and I gasped in realization.

"Oh my God…" I said. "Oh my God! I'm alive!" How did that even make sense? I thought for sure that I had been killed! The truck chuckled.

"You just noticed that?" he said. "Dad gum, them Lemons must've hit you in the head pretty dang hard, Dusty!"

* * *

**To those who follow me on Instagram... this is how they became friends xD**


	14. Chapter 14

**Oh God, I'm so sorry! I know, it's been WAY too long since my last update! I published Chapter 13 at the beginning of the school year, and now my final exams are coming up soon! The reason is I had spent so much time planning out the story up to Chapter 13, and I didn't really have any idea what would happen after that! xD But anyway, how about that plot twist? Haha, I'm so proud of myself; got the reaction that I was aiming for! :)**

* * *

"Hello, farm boy, looks like we haven't quite finished you yet!" Ripslinger snarled, right in front of Dusty's face. Terrified, Dusty attempted to get away from his assaulters, but found himself immobilized.

"That's okay," Benny said, a bloodthirsty smile stretching across his face. "That means we can have more fun with him now!" He held up his chainsaw.

"NO! PLEASE NO!" Dusty cried desperately as they prepared to torture him once more. "LEAVE ME ALONE! PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! I'LL STOP RACING, I WON'T TELL THE POLICE ABOUT THIS, ANYTHING! JUST PLEASE LET ME GO!"

"Scream all you want, kid. _We love it!"_

Dusty started sobbing while Benny prepared to strike. "Please don't do this again…no…NO!" He braced himself for the debilitating pain to slice through his body when the scene suddenly disappeared.

"You okay?" said a voice. It was Mater, noticing that Dusty was hyperventilating.

"I—Ripslinger was —no—happening again—" All he could get out was incoherent fragments. Nevertheless, Mater knew what he was talking about, as the same thing had been haunting him for the past two weeks while in the hospital. His mental health wasn't much better than his physical health. Which is saying a lot. Along with the countless cracks, cuts, and dents, he was also suffering major internal bleeding and a severe concussion.

"Sh…" Mater whispered to him. "Calm down, Dust. It was just a dream. You're safe an' sound here." He stayed by his side as his breaths slowed down to a healthier pace, and he began to tear up.

"This is a living hell," he whimpered feebly. "I can't move around or do anything, I'm constantly having nightmares when I'm asleep and in constant pain when I'm awake, I'm probably not even going to live much longer and…I miss my friends so much. In fact…why haven't they come to visit? Or at least talked to me by radio? They…they know I'm here…right? Can I at least say goodbye to them before I…die?"

Mater felt so bad. Holley and Finn had specifically told him that not only could no one know where Dusty was, but also no one could know that he was even alive. As long as everyone thought he was dead, there was no danger of Ripslinger and the Lemons finding out and hurting him again. Mater wished that Dusty's friends could be an exception, but Michael's disappearance was a good sign that there was something or someone spying on the folks of Propwash Junction. He wasn't sure what to tell the poor guy.

"You're not gonna die," was all that came out. Dusty looked slightly irritated by this response.

"Never mind…" he groaned. He closed his eyes.

"C'mon, Dusty…uh…Dusty? Hello?" The plane was completely unresponsive and motionless. Did he really fall asleep that fast? Or was he…

Mater began to panic. "Dusty! Don't leave us now! C'mon, you got so much to live for!" Mater yelled, shaking him. Just then the door burst open.

"What on Earth is going on?" said the nurse.

"He ain't respondin'…I think he's…" The nurse rolled her eyes.

"He still has a pulse, you idiot. Calm down and let him be!" Mater looked at the monitor. She was right.

"Oh… my bad…he he…" he said, laughing sheepishly. Still, it was unnerving how lifeless he looked, lying completely motionless, battered and broken, with his mouth gaping underneath an oxygen mask. It was as if he were attached to his life by a thread that could just snap at any moment.

* * *

_1 month later…_

"Hey. Dustbuster. Doin' alright?" Dusty opened his eyes groggily.

"Wha…what did you just call me?"

"Dustbuster. Or maybe I'll call you Stardust! Or…Dust Bowl?" Mater said. Dusty started laughing.

"I'm sure Leadbottom would _love _that last one!"

"Yeah, ain't that just the perfect name for a farmer?" The two of them cracked up.

Although he had the option to leave, Mater chose to stay by Dusty's side. He felt so bad for the young plane, and wanted more than anything to help him pull through. He wasn't going to let him suffer alone. It wasn't long before he befriended Dusty, and they both learned about each other's lives back at home.

Though Dusty was not always this easy to talk to. He had undergone several surgeries in the past month, yet didn't look much better than he did before. The hospital had been focused on fixing the internal damage, so he was still missing several parts, and lacked the ability to move whatsoever. This kind of confinement on top of persistent pain intermittently had him in a state of delirium whenever he wasn't sleeping. Dusty was probably the sweetest plane that Mater had ever met, but it was rather unsettling to see him staring off into nothingness with his eyes twitching, while mumbling gibberish, as if he had no concept of reality.

There was really nothing right with the poor guy. Those monsters had really done a number on him.

Just then, the doctor came in, along with the nurse, who was pushing a tray table with tools on it.

"I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave, Mater," said the doctor.

"Oh –uh, alright, ma'am." He did as she told him, leaving Dusty alone with the two of them. Suddenly, Dusty felt yet another sharp pain and let out a sharp moan. The two women were doing something with his gas mask, but didn't pay much attention to what it was. A wave of drowsiness swept over him.

"I know you're hurting," said the nurse. "But don't worry. The pain will be gone soon, for good."

"Wait, what…?" Dusty croaked nervously, but soon slipped into unconsciousness.

* * *

**Okay, I'm going to make two promises right here:**

**1\. Dusty WILL NOT die in this story. NEVER. HE SHALL PREVAIL OVER EVERYTHING!**

**2\. I promise that no more extreme physical pain will be inflicted on Dusty from here on out. **


	15. Chapter 15

_May 15, 2015_

Michael yawned.

_That was all just a bad dream, right? Dad didn't throw me out of a helicopter? Dusty wasn't kidnapped and tortured to death? And when I open my eyes, I'll be in my room, at home, safe and sound…right?_

But to his dismay, he opened his eyes to a hospital room, not his own room. He didn't wake up from a nightmare. He had woken up _to _the nightmare that was his life.

"No…" he moaned hopelessly, tears welling up in his eyes. It was over.

Eventually, a young red and white plane entered the room, and she smiled as soon as she saw Michael.

"G' morning, Michael! Name's Abby! Great to see that you're awake!" she said excitedly. "How are you feeling?" Michael just whimpered. Abby's smile faded, and she rolled up closer to him. "You okay?"

"No!" Michael burst out.

"What's wrong?"

He opened his mouth, but then burst into violent sobs before he could get anything out. Abby nuzzled him sympathetically.

"It'll be okay, honey…it'll be okay…" she soothed. He cried into her side for a while until she backed up from him.

Michael looked at her, and suddenly realized how beautiful she was. He soon stopped crying and stared into her chocolate brown eyes.

"So… your friend Chloe is waiting outside for ya. You should go see her. She's been worried sick."

"Wait, she is? Where am I?" Michael asked.

"Manhattan. You were found just outside of New York City. The medics told me you were good as dead, but I proved 'em wrong!" Abby smiled triumphantly.

"Wow…thanks…" Michael said, suddenly admiring this woman even more. And she probably lived nearby him…

_Nah, _Michael thought. _She's a doctor. Probably too old for me._

"Anyway, you should go see Chloe. Your injuries are fixed, after all."

"Yeah, alright."

Abby led him out of the hospital. Sure enough, Chloe was waiting right outside. As soon as she saw him, she rushed up and nuzzled him, sobbing.

"Oh God, thank goodness!" she said between sobs. "Thank goodness you're alright! You—you were dying, Michael!"

"It's okay. I'm okay, Chloe," Michael assured her, tears escaping from him as well. He had never seen her so upset before. Soon he realized that she was not alone.

"James? Liam? Brian?" They were his three younger brothers, who looked very excited to see him again.

"Mikey!" they shouted in unison, cuddling with their older brother.

"I missed you too, boys…"

Chloe then turned to Abby. "Thank you. Thank you so much!"

"Aw, you don't have to thank me," Abby replied. "I'm glad he's okay! Anyway, I have to go. Take care!" Michael stared at her in admiration as she left.

"That girl is a genius," Chloe told Michael after Abby left. "She's only twenty years old!"

"Wait…what?!"

* * *

_June 8_

Ripslinger and his team had continued to live with Professor Z and his minions. He wished that he could go home, but they wouldn't let him. Seeing that it was his fault that Michael was still alive, he would be forced to continue working with them until they had succeeded in getting rid of the boy once and for all. He probably wouldn't be welcome at home anyway.

However, on that day, Professor Z discovered that there was a much bigger threat than Michael that needed to be addressed.

"RIPSLINGER!" he screamed angrily.

"What is it, Professor?" Ned asked. "Is there something wrong?"

"Yes, there's something wrong!" Professor Z replied. " I just got a report from Katherine Minsky that DUSTY CROPHOPPER IS ALIVE!" Everyone gasped.

"What? How's that even possible?" Grem said.

"Does this mean we're screwed?" Acer asked. Michael was dangerous enough, but Dusty? He knew their crime firsthand!

"Well, yeah it does! Hell at this point, we're most definitely being hunted down by the police!" Grem replied angrily. "And we all know whose fault that is!" Everyone looked at Ripslinger and his racing team.

"Uh oh…" Zed said nervously. Ripslinger was equally terrified. He knew how merciless these guys were. It was going to be _bad. _Desperately, he tried to reason with them.

"Well, uh, I thought for sure that he was dead! He had stopped breathing and everything!"

"So you just knocked the wind out of him and left?" Benny said with an unimpressed look on his face. "Besides, don't you remember how we got in this big mess in the first place? Because your own weakling son found us out! Clearly you let some important information slip. Also, it's your fault that Michael is still alive, as you failed to kill him. And now it seems that you made the same mistake with Crophopper. That's three strikes, Ripslinger!" Ripslinger's fear melted into anger.

"Yeah, well, I never wanted to hurt Michael in the first place! And having Dusty killed is by far my biggest regret! So I'm actually _glad _that they survived! And you know what? I _hope_ we get caught! We all deserve to be behind bars for what we did!" Professor Z scowled. Grem and Acer loaded their guns. Ripslinger noticed that he was giving them a command, but he couldn't make out what he was saying.

And then the guns were fired. Ripslinger squeezed his eyes shut as a shower of bullets thundered around him. But none of them hit him. Not one. When he opened his eyes after they were done shooting, he saw Ned, Zed, and Luke—they were all dead. But not himself. He was alive and well.

And very confused.

"Wh-why aren't you killing me?" Acer cackled.

"You are _such _an idiot!" he said.

"Oh, Ripslinger," said Professor Z. "If only you had just cooperated. If you had been more reasonable, the only one you would have lost was the son who hates you. But since you were so uncooperative…" Ripslinger did not like where this was going.

"No…"

"Yes! All four of your children will die! You get to watch us rip all of them to pieces! I hope you are proud, Ripslinger." Ripslinger pounced and thrashed at them with his wings.

"NO! YOU MONSTERS!" Ripslinger yelled. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM MY FAMILY!"

"Or what?" said Benny. "What are you gonna do to stop us?" Ripslinger felt a sudden jolt of electricity before he blacked out.

* * *

**Yeah...first legitimate deaths in this story...won't be the last...**

**(ugh I still really need to change the cover for this story but I'm too lazy and my tablet's not working so I guess for now we'll have to stick with the crappy one from early 2015 when I couldn't draw lol)**


	16. Chapter 16

**Guess who got caught up in another fandom and practically forgot about this story? That's right, ME! xD **

* * *

_June 24_

Dusty woke up feeling not quite right. He didn't know what it was, but something felt a little off. He seemed… taller than he was supposed to be. He looked down at his landing gear.

Wait a minute…he had landing gear. And wings. And a propeller. And then he realized it: what felt wrong was the fact that there was nothing wrong. He was in one piece, with no cracks or holes or dents.

And there was no pain.

How long had it been since he had been home? What had even… happened to him? He had a persistent yet vague picture in his mind of Ripslinger in some dark, ominous room…and were there others with him? Was that even something that had really happened? Or just…nightmares? He just couldn't seem to make sense of it all. He felt completely disoriented and confused.

Yet at the same time, he felt…great. He felt better than he had in a long time. He was still hooked up to multiple wires, so he couldn't just leave or anything, but his suffering was over. He no longer felt like he was dying.

After just resting for a bit, Mater and the nurse came into the room.

"Hey, you're awake!" Mater exclaimed.

"Heh, yeah," Dusty replied. "How long was I out?"

"A couple of weeks," said the nurse. "How are you feeling?"

"Never better!" Dusty said with a grin.

"Well that's what I like to hear!" she replied, smiling back at him. Mater looked excited too. "Now, all we have to do is get you unhooked and everything, and you can be on your way!"

"Wait, really? I can go home now?"

"Of course!"

It really shouldn't have been much of a surprise, since there was no longer anything wrong with him, but he had been stuck in the hospital for so long that the idea of leaving had begun to feel like something that would never happen. Then again, he really had no idea how long he had been there. He had completely lost track of how much time had been passing, with his sleep schedule being out of whack and all.

But the only important thing was that it was all over. He could finally go back to Propwash and live a normal life again. Everything would be just as it had been before…right?

* * *

A huge wave of excitement rolled over Dusty as he approached the runway for the first time in ages. Mater followed him there to make sure he could fly without any problems. It had been two months, after all.

"You ready?" Mater asked. Dusty smirked.

"Ready as I'll ever be!" he replied. He started his engine and watched as his propeller began to spin. He looked over at Mater. "So… can we see each other again some time?"

"Well, of course ya can! You can come visit Radiator Springs whenever you want!"

"Great," Dusty replied, then he winked. "Later, Mater!" He began to move forward for takeoff.

"See ya, Dusty!"

He slowly lifted off of the ground and into the air, then in excitement, he began climbing so fast that he was practically going straight up in the air.

"YYEEAAAHHH! OH YEAH! WOOHOO!" As he touched the clouds, it was one of the most exhilarating moments of his life. Funny how flying so high had used to terrify him, and now he was avidly relishing every moment of it more than anything else. He felt alive again.

He had almost forgotten what that felt like.

* * *

It was midnight by the time Dusty arrived at Propwash Junction, and everyone was asleep.

_What should I do now? _he thought. _Just… go to my hangar and sleep?_

Perhaps that was the best decision. As eager as he was to see his friends again, he didn't want to wake them all up in the middle of the night. However, when he got to his hangar, a feeling of dread hung over him. Then he remembered the sound of gunshots and glass shattering on top of him, then feeling an extremely brief yet intense pain on the right side of his head before blacking out. It had all happened way too fast for him to react, or to even comprehend what was happening.

Recalling that memory, he knew there was no way he'd be able to sleep there by himself. At least not yet.

Then Dusty had an idea. He rolled up to Skipper's hangar and rang the doorbell. There was no response.

"YO SKIP!" he shouted, pounding on the door with his wing. "WAKE UP!" He waited, and then finally the door opened to reveal a half-asleep Skipper.

"Can we practice later today, kid?" Skipper said, yawning. "I didn't get enough sleep…" Dusty giggled.

"Oh come on, Skip!"

"Dusty, really, I'm tired… Wait a minute, DUSTY?"

* * *

**Yup, Dusty's just fine... well, for the most part ;)**


End file.
